“The prices are totally exaggerated”

The Turkish star restaurateur, influencer and noble butcher Salt Bae (39), his real name is Nusret Gökçe, is facing a storm of outrage on social media.

The reason: The noble butcher recently boasted on Instagram that his restaurant charged the equivalent of 160,000 francs. Not at all, find his followers.

Mega invoice for delicious wines

For a steak alone, the guests left up to 1,200 francs. The wine consumed is primarily responsible for the sample bill. The guests enjoyed themselves with five bottles of Pétrus and two bottles of Pétrus 2009, a Chateau Margaux and a bottle of Louis XIII. In the end they paid no less than 129,000 francs for it.

But is this amount, which is well above Mr. and Mrs. Swiss’s average annual income, really justified or is Salt Bae picking up on its customers? For Tobias Gysi (46), wine academic and Swiss wine sommelier, the latter is clearly the case.

According to Gysi, Pétrus is one of the best Merlots in the world. The fact that it is only available in very limited quantities makes the wine a collector’s item among connoisseurs. “Unfortunately, these wines are often not drunk at all, but only serve as an investment object,” says the Blick Wein expert.

Tens of thousands of francs price difference

However, when you look at the price of the fine wine, you realize that Salt Bae charges its customers much more than the wine actually costs on the market. “The Pétrus 2009 is available from wine merchant Lucullus for 7,300 francs per bottle,” says Gysi. The approximately 52,000 francs that Salt Bae charged guests for the two bottles “is completely exaggerated”.

The same goes for the bottle of Chateau Margaux. Here too, Gysi feels like a rip off. “A top vintage usually costs less than 1000 francs”. The 4,000 francs requested by Salt Bae is much too high. This is also the case with the Louis XIII bottle. 11,000 francs poured into the restaurant’s cash register. Normally one pays “only” 3,000 francs for the noble cognac. (ceded)